Gone are the days when buy-out firms fought each other with the ferocity of cornered cats to win a deal. In the past two years, private-equity firms?which manage funds that buy big controlling stakes in companies, sometimes thereby taking public firms private?have given up the solitary pursuit of their prey in favour of hunting in packs. This week saw the biggest "club deal" so far, as seven private-equity firms bought SunGard Data Systems, a financial technology business,...

Engineering turnaround specialist Melrose Industries Plc said it would sell its Elster business to Honeywell International Inc for 3.3 billion pounds ($5.14 billion) in cash. The company, which follows a buy-improve-sell strategy akin to private equity firms, said it would return 2 billion pounds to shareholders after the sale. Elster, Melrose's largest acquisition, houses water, gas and power consumption meter businesses.

MILAN: The pace of initial public offerings in Europe may more than triple this year, narrowing the gap with the rest of the world, as the biggest stock-market rally in a decade lures buyers and economic growth recovers, bankers said. Sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa are likely to surpass the $28 billion raised in 2008, according to bankers at Citigroup, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank. That would be at least three times the $8.9 billion sold in 2009, which was the...

NEW DELHI: Private equity (PE) firms are learnt to be pulling out of real estate deals citing condition precedents (CPs), which are part of the deal document. CPs are conditions which are required to be satisfied after signing of a deal, without which the deal cannot close. Conditions include getting permission in a specified time period, timeline guarantees. An overseas PE firm based in Mumbai is trying to get out of a deal it had signed with a Delhibased real estate...

HONG KONG: Private equity firms KKR & Co and TPG Capital are making poor returns on their investment in China International Capital Corp (CICC), the country's oldest investment bank that is readying an IPO but has struggled to compete with younger rivals. CICC, formerly led by Levin Zhu, the 'princeling' son of former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji , filed late on Wednesday for a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) that sources have said could raise at...

KKR & Co LP said on Thursday that its second-quarter earnings rose 67 per cent year-on-year, reaching a quarterly record that far exceeded most analysts' expectations, as its private equity funds appreciated far more than the wider market. KKR's strong performance is due to the rise in value of a few large portfolio companies, such as payment processor First Data Corp, which this week filed for an initial public offering, and hospital operator HCA Holdings Inc. The...

NEW DELHI: Online retailer Fashionandyou.com has raised USD 40 million (over Rs 200 crore) from a group of private equity firms, including Intel Capital and Sequoia Capital , to fund its expansion. The company that is aiming to become a profitable entity with a turnover of Rs 500 crore in the next two years had raised the funds from four PE players. The others are Norwest Venture Partners and Nokia Growth Partners . "This the third...

MUMBAI: Usha Shriram Enterprises is in talks with several potential investors, including private equity firms to sell a part or whole of the unlisted company that manufactures lights, fans, cookware as well as other small appliances, several people with knowledge of the matter said. Key bidders among private equity players include SAIF Partners , Actis Capital and Everstone Capital , said one of the people. Rivals Bajaj Electricals and Orient...

AMSTERDAM: A group of six private equity firms has launched a $9.1bn tender offer for Netherlands-based information provider VNU, the latter said said on Monday. The consortium ? AlpInvest Partners, The Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Thomas H. Lee Partners ? has bid 28.75 euros per share for the world's biggest market research company. The company's management has recommended that...

NEW DELHI: Private Equity firms have invested about $ 4 billion through 128 deals during the quarter ended June, up 80 per cent year-on-year in value terms, says a report. According to data from Venture Intelligence , the invested amount was 80 per cent higher than $2.24 billion in the April-June quarter last year infused through 115 transactions. The latest figures take the total PE investments in 2015 to $6.87 billion through 288 transactions, 53...

MUMBAI: WickedLeak, an emerging smartphone manufacturer that also runs an online retail platform for its products, is in talks with private equity firms to raise about $2 million, according to people familiar with the matter. The Mumbai-based company recently launched a smartphone which it claims has the largest battery capacity in the world. A week into the launch, the company received some 4,000 confirmed orders and halted sales. WickedLeak stopped...

MUMBAI: Finance and banking firms, big and small, are raising large sums of money from foreign investors jousting for a slice of action in the world's fastest-growing major economy. Indian financial services firms delivered the second-highest return on invested capital for private equity firms during 2009-13, a recent study by global consultancy firm McKinsey & Co showed. Investors looking for growth and returns in a sluggish economy are...

Mumbai: While many still remain cautious about the India story, the private equity firms seem to bought the story and are betting big on the growth narrative. Private equity firms saw a 29 per cent jump in the second quarter of the year—April to June—this year in volumes compared to the same period last year, a research report by VCC Edge said Tuesday. "Private equity investments in Q2 ...

By Paul Mozur HONG KONG: The rise of a mobile software company from nothing to a $1 billion valuation in just over a year from its first product release would typically draw rapt attention, and jealousy, inside Silicon Valley . Yet the Apus Group, one company with such a stratospheric rise, is largely unknown in Silicon Valley. That is because the company is based more than 6,000 miles away, in China. Across Asia, investments in...

MUMBAI: Real estate developer Paranjape Schemes (Construction) Ltd is aiming to raise up to Rs 600 crore through an initial public offer of equity shares. The developer has filed the draft red herring prospectus for the proposed issue with the capital market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India. The company is proposing to utilize the issue proceeds for repayment and pre-payment, in full or part, of certain loans availed by the company, for construction and...

HONG KONG: China's move to curb initial public offerings (IPOs) to contain a stock market meltdown could endanger nearly $32 billion worth of deals announced this year by Chinese companies planning to drop their listings on U.S. exchanges and return home. China's securities regulator said at the weekend there would be "no new IPOs in the near-term" and the number and volume of deals down the line would be greatly reduced, part of a series of measures to...

NEW DELHI: Private equity firms invested about USD 2.5 billion across 97 deals during the quarter ended September 2012 driven mainly by the Bain Capital-Genpact deal, says a study. According to the study by Venture Intelligence, the USD 1 billion investment by Bain Capital in Gurgaon-based BPO firm Genpact, the investment amount in the September quarter (excluding real estate deals) showed a growth of 4.4 per cent over that invested in the same period...

NEW DELHI: Leading private equity firms and strategic investors are in the race to pick up a minority stake in the consumer products business of Crompton Greaves that's proposed to be spun off as a listed entity shortly. Billionaire Gautam Thapar , who was earlier planning to sell all of Crompton Greaves Ltd , is working on a new strategy. The two-part plans involves hiving off the consumer products business in such a way that its ownership is...

COPENHAGEN: Private equity firms 3i Infrastructure and AMP Capital have agreed to jointly acquire Danish shipping company Esvagt, shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk said on Tuesday. The deal values Esvagt at 4.1 billion Danish crowns ($607 million). A.P. Moller-Maersk controls 75 percent of the shares in Esvagt while the rest is controlled by a group of individual investors. Esvagt has a fleet of 53 vessels and is a provider of offshore safety and support at sea...

NEW DELHI: Private Equity firms have invested about $ 4 billion through 128 deals during the quarter ended June, up 80 per cent year-on-year in value terms, says a report. According to data from Venture Intelligence , the invested amount was 80 per cent higher than $2.24 billion in the April-June quarter last year infused through 115 transactions. The latest figures take the total PE investments in 2015 to $6.87 billion through 288 transactions, 53...